


Wolf's Shadow

by firefright



Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fairy Tale, Canon-Typical Violence, Enemies to Lovers, Interspecies Relationship(s), Kissing, M/M, Misunderstandings, Shapeshifting, Wolves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-12
Updated: 2017-09-12
Packaged: 2018-12-26 15:31:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,734
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12061872
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/firefright/pseuds/firefright
Summary: Jason Todd has a secret. There's a monster on his heels; a wolf, who ever since the hunter's failed attempt to kill him two years ago has haunted Jason's every step with the promise that he will one day claim him as his prey.Or so Jason thinks. In actual fact, the wolf (who prefers to use the name Dick when wearing the guise of a human) has come to have a rather different idea about just what his hold over him means, and it takes Jason doing something monumentally dangerous for him to realise it.





	Wolf's Shadow

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kiwiliko (kukoo)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kukoo/gifts).



> Hello! This fic was written for the Batfam Reverse Bang this year. I was pretty excited to participate in the event, not least because the art that inspired this story is by the wonderful [Kiwiliko](http://kiwiliko.tumblr.com/) on tumblr. I fell in love with the piece the moment I saw it, and absolutely had to write a story I hope has done that art justice.
> 
> You can find the art further down in the story, and as you probably guessed from the title, yes, it's another wolf-themed piece, though in a rather different vein from the last one I posted. I hope you all very much enjoy :D

“Go away, wolf.”

Jason’s voice is a splinter in the night, disturbing the former quiet as he looks out over the banked fires of the goblin camp in the valley below. A dead wind means not even the leaves of the trees are rustling, yet still, it’s only instinct and experience that lets him know he’s been crept up on. The one behind is too good to ever make a sound without meaning it.

Like now; a soft laugh and a warm brush of moist air against the back of his neck confirms Jason’s guess. “Go away?” a familiar voice mocks, “Do you really want me to go away, Jason?”

He wonders what he’d see if he were to turn around now. Slavering jaws, pricked ears? Or would it be warm lips and long-lashed eyes? A smile that can slide under his skin more smoothly than any needle. Maybe even some strange combination of both.

“I’m working,” Jason replies, putting the thought out of mind. It doesn’t matter, he’s not going to turn around. “You’re distracting me.”

He closes his eyes as that presence moves closer. This time, he feels lips brush the side of his ear. “It’s just a few goblins. Barely more than a mouthful. Not at all worth your time.”

Jason tells himself he shouldn’t engage, he knows better, but still he can’t help himself. “They’re going to attack the village by the river tomorrow. People will die if I don’t stop them.”

“They’re not your people.”

He really is getting better at pretending to be human, Jason thinks; he said ‘people,’ not pack.

“No, they’re not. But not all of us are selfish _dicks_ , y’know. I don’t need to be related to someone to help them.”

The wolf laughs at Jason’s insulting twist on his chosen name. _Richard_ , because it meant bravery and power. Two things that very much appeal to a beast used to being top dog wherever he goes.

“Careful, Jason,” this time the brush of lips comes with an edge of teeth, “You don’t want to get your head bitten off.”

“It’s been two years, wolf. So far, my head’s still attached to my shoulders.”

“True,” Dick agrees. Arms drape across Jason’s shoulders; a lean muscled body presses itself in against his back. He shivers when it’s followed by slender fingers slipping beneath the open front of his jacket, before Dick lightly says, “But that can always change.”

Jason bites down on the inside of his cheek, wishing for the thousandth time that it had gone differently when they first met. That his blade had been quicker; the wolf’s jaws slower. If either of those things were true, he wouldn’t be in this position now; bound by magic older than the world itself, and followed everywhere he goes by a monster he cannot hurt. Forced always to move on from any place he visits, never lingering long enough to find a home in case someone else might fall victim or discover his secret.

“Get off me,” Jason says, trying to shrug out of the hold. Instead, he’s treated to a chastising nip on the top of his ear, followed by the rub of the Dick’s cheek against the side of his head. “I mean it, wolf.”

“I could help you,” Comes the expected offer; tempting in how easy it would make the task ahead.

The last thing he needs, though, is for this creature to have anymore power over his life than he already does.

“I don’t need your help.” Jason replies brusquely, standing up and forcing the wolf to let go that way. For some strange reason, when Dick is in human form Jason stands taller than him. Often, he’s wondered if it would be the same way if he were able to turn into a wolf as well. “Like you said, it’s just a few goblins.”

He hears the rustle of dead leaves as Dick takes one step back, then another. A brush of wind pushes against his back, followed by a sound like twigs popping in a fire.

“You’ll say yes one day.” Dick tells him, voice now strangely deeper, and coming down at him from a higher altitude than it was before.

“Never, wolf.” Jason replies.

He pulls his hood up over his head, then reaches for the carved grinning face of his mask, bright red to match it. By the time he’s finished putting it on, the woods are once again completely silent around him.

*

The next morning, Jason stands waist-deep in a stream near his camp, washing himself down after cleaning goblin blood from his dagger and clothing. The stream is a tributary of the river next to the village the goblins meant to attack. He plans to visit it himself later today to pick up supplies, and it’s probably best he looks as close to normal as he can before he gets there.

It’s not that the Red Hood’s reputation is bad, exactly (though there are those who rightly call him cursed), but it does bring with it certain expectations Jason would rather avoid. That is, _if_ anyone there does manage to recognise him.

He scrubs himself down with the small nugget of soap he carries wrapped in a twist of paper in his pack, then pinches his nostrils shut as he falls back into the stream to submerge himself completely beneath the water. It’s early spring, and this high up the water is ice cold from the snowmelt coming down off the mountains. Still, it feels good, and the few bruises he earned last night are better for it.

Jason returns to the small clearing where he made camp with a mind to prepare breakfast before he heads on down through the valley to the river. In his bag is some dried meat and bread. A meager meal, but that’s part of why he intends to go to the village. The goblins had gold he wasn’t ashamed to take to trade for better fare than he can forage by himself in the forest.

Then Jason reaches his campfire and realises his meal won’t be quite so meagre after all.

“You could at least skin it!” He shouts at the surrounding forest, looking with small revulsion at the headless corpse of a rabbit left lying on top of a smooth stone next to the fire.

Sometimes, Dick thinks it funny to leave him ‘presents’ like this, and Jason’s sure the wolf is laughing at him now wherever he is. Still, at least this is better than the first time he did it. A year ago now, Jason had awoken to find the torn up body of a doe staring him in the face, and the sound he’d made on that occasion had been embarrassingly shrill.

Today, he simply sighs and gets to work salvaging what meat hasn’t been tainted by canine teeth and roasting it over the fire. What he won’t eat this morning he lets cool and wraps in a cloth to save for later in the day.

The walk to the village takes the better part of four hours. Jason tracks the stream down to where it joins the river, then follows the flow of the water until the forest ends and he enters flat farmland planted over what would have once been a floodplain. The villagers, or perhaps the local lord, were industrious, though, and had built upon the river’s natural levees to stand against the water. The result is lush green land, and now with spring in motion the planting of crops is in full force.

Or at least it should be. Jason frowns as he passes empty fields, some already tilled but not sown, and the occasional scarecrow standing guard over a bare plot.

It isn’t until he’s almost on the outskirts of the village that he finally sees any people. Young men, some just shy of adulthood, as well as older folks. Both generations appear wary, armed with wooden clubs, scythes, and what looks like any other tools they could lay their hands on and thought could be used as weapons.

Maybe they did know the goblins were coming after all.

Despite this — and some unfriendly looks — no one challenges or stops Jason from entering the village, and he heads towards the center square where he’s most likely to find a shop selling what he needs without any trouble.

It’s far more empty than he would expect at this time of day.

“Can I help you?” The elderly shopkeeper asks him, visibly nervous.

“Just passing through,” Jason replies, “I need a few supplies, that’s all.”

“Well,” the man says, relaxing very little, “You better hurry up. I’m closing soon.”

Jason arches an eyebrow. It’s early afternoon, so he doubts that very much. He also knows a hint to move on when he hears one, though, and since he wasn’t planning on lingering in the village for very long anyway he’s happy to take it. At least this shopkeeper isn’t refusing his custom completely, as some others have done in the past.

Keeping his word, Jason completes his shopping fast. The shopkeeper’s expression warms up considerably when Jason drops a piece of goblin gold into his hand, but by then it’s already too late for further pleasantries. Jason is ready to get out of here and move on.

He steps back outside, only to run smack into the young boy standing there.

“You okay?” Jason asks, concerned as he reaches down to offer the kid a hand up out of the dirt.

He’s scrawny, almost whip-thin with a shock of red hair and big brown eyes; far too small to have a chance at standing against Jason’s weight, which is why he fell. He takes Jason’s hand without fear, though, allowing himself to be pulled back up onto his feet.

“Y-yeah.” Too late, Jason notes the kid’s wide eyes are fixated on his hair. To the hood that was knocked back in the collision. He reaches up to tug it down over his face again, but not quick enough. “Are you the Red Hood?” the kid blurts out.

Inwardly, Jason curses the wolf’s other, more physical mark on him. “I…”

“The Red Hood’s supposed to have a white streak in his hair, like you do,” The kid barrels on eagerly, “And carry a big knife, like yours!”

Jason’s hand reflexively goes to his hip. “Kid—”

“They say you hunt monsters, is that true?”

A small crowd is starting to gather around them. Children mostly, and a few women. Jason grits his teeth, feeling cornered. Telling the truth has its perils, but so does lying more often than not, and the looks these people are wearing — particularly the children — are caught somewhere between fear and hope.

Instinct tells him there’s something more going on here than a young boy’s curiosity. Perhaps to do with the reason why no one is out working the fields, and for the men on guard outside the village.

Lifting his head, Jason says carefully, “It depends on the monster.”

An astonished murmur goes through the small crowd. The redheaded boy looks more excited, then darts back, grabbing the hand of a woman he somewhat resembles.

“I told you it was him!” he says, pulling her forward. “I told you, mum!”

The woman looks far more cautious about approaching Jason than her son. “You’re really the Red Hood?” she asks, clutching her shawl around her shoulders.

“You can call me Jason.” he replies. “But yeah, I am.”

Hearing that he has an actual name seems to reassure her more than his admittance to the title. She has the tired, thin look about her that Jason associates with peasant mothers everywhere; overworked and vastly underpaid. “Thank god,” she says. “I’m Aida. This my son, Percy.”

Not as hesitant as his mother, Percy immediately takes the opportunity to blurt out, “We need your help!”

Jason frowns. Now that his identity is out in the open, he gives up on any pretence of disguise and pushes his hood back off his face. “What’s going on here?”

Aida exchanges a nervous look with a few of the other women. “It’s the men, they…”

“I think you better come inside,” An old woman interrupts, her wizened gaze intense. “There’s a lot to explain.”

Jason hesitates, wondering what he’s about to get mixed up in, but it’s like he told the wolf, when people need help he can’t do anything but respond.

“Lead the way.”

They take him to one of the nearby houses, and after Aida serves him of cup of weak tea, Jason sits and listens seriously to their tale. The story is mostly told by the old woman (Aida’s mother as it turns out) and Aida herself, but occasionally Percy jumps in with his own contributions as well, despite being hushed repeatedly by the women.

It started a week ago. Two of the village’s children went missing, playing in the woods up to the north. An initial search found nothing. Then, two days later, another boy disappeared, this time much closer to home.

There were tracks the women explained, monstrous tracks left in the freshly dug earth of the fields belonging to some kind of giant beast. Upon seeing them it had taken no time at all for the men of the village to work themselves into a frenzy, and this time it had been a hunting party that left the village, led by the fathers of the missing children. Only those too young or too infirm to go had remained behind.

Four days later, none of them have returned.

“We sent Megan’s son on one of the horses to the local lord, but who knows if he’ll come and help.” Aida says unhappily, looking down at her lap. Her husband is among the missing, she had confessed to Jason.

Knowing the ways of nobility he’s inclined to agree. Some stuck up lordling may not even believe such claims from a serf to begin with, let alone consider it worth mobilising his soldiers to investigate their story further. And more than that, by the time those soldiers get here — if they are coming — it would almost certainly be too late to save the missing villagers.

“Can you show me the tracks you spoke of?” Jason asks.

The relief on the women’s and Percy’s faces at his tacit agreement to look into their problem is palpable.

“This way.” Percy says eagerly.

Outside, the tracks are not much to speak of. A recent fall of rain has ruined them for the most part, making it hard to define exactly what kind of creature was responsible for their making. The most Jason can tell after some examination is that it was big. Very big, and it had left — as the women had said — to the north.

“Will you go?” Aida asks him anxiously as he stands up from the muddy ground. “Will you bring our men back? We don’t have much, but we will pay what—”

Jason holds up his hand to stop her. “I can’t promise anything.” More accurately, he _won’t_ promise anything, not when he knows that the likelihood is both the missing children and the men are already dead, “But I will see what I can find.”

“Thank you.” she swallows hard, “Thank you so much.”

Beside her, Percy looks so brazenly hopeful that Jason has to turn away from him. He’s done this song and dance too many times before. If he returns to the village with bad news, he knows his second greeting will be nowhere near as friendly. But he’ll still do it, because these women deserve answers if nothing else.

“Do you need anything?” Aida’s mother asks him. She at least looks resigned already, old and wise enough to face reality. “Food or other supplies? A horse?”

“No,” Jason says solemnly, pulling his hood back up over his head as he turns north to follow after the tracks. “I already have everything I need.”

*

He loses the remains of the beast’s muddied footprints quickly in the woods, if only because the tracks of the men who’d followed it cover every step.

They’d been messy, destroying the brush with blades, forcing their way through where necessary with no care for concealing their path. Doubtless their anger and worry over the missing children had erased any sense of caution the men had, and Jason reaches out, touching broken branches and bruised leaves while feeling the weight of the knife on his hip grow ever heavier.

As a precaution, he puts on his mask and draws the blade out of its scabbard and into his hand. Who knows how close the beast’s lair is, and how soon he’ll have to fight. Better he be prepared for an ambush, just in case the creature turns out to be one of the smart ones.

He only makes it three hours deep into the forest before running into familiar company.

A familiar dark sharp whips past him, snatching the mask from his face as it somersaults through the air. “You didn’t stay long.” The wolf says, landing neatly in front of Jason in mostly human form, give or take a few features. “What happened?”

 

Jason stiffens, stopping mid-tread with his left foot resting on a moss-covered log. His eyes meet Dick’s deep blue ones, and he fights the instinctive urge to look away. “Trouble, what else?”

Dark ears swivel forwards, radiating interest as much as the expression on his face and the uplifted tail behind his back do. Dick takes a further step, moving a little closer, “What trouble?” he asks. His head cocks, while his eyes narrow dangerously. “Did they chase you out?”

“No.” Jason answers, a touch defensively. _Not this time._ “Not that it’s any business of yours if they did.”

Another step closer. Jason tracks the lash of that tail behind Dick’s back, trying to focus on it and nothing else. Not the slender litheness of the wolf’s human body, nor the darkness of his hair or his warm tanned skin. Not the curve of his lips, or how the ink blackness of the clothing he gives himself in the shifting does little to hide how trim his waist is.

It isn’t right that a beast can look so deceptively beautiful, especially to a human. As always, Jason curses his attraction to him when he’s like this. It only adds another conflicting element to what is already a troubling relationship.

“Come on, Jason,” Dick starts to sing-song. “Tell me.”

“No.” he snaps this time, “I’m not playing your games today. This is serious; give me my mask back and get out of my way.”

Dick frowns, at his tone or his words or the combination of both. Then he turns his head, pirouetting neatly on his toes to look down the path Jason’s following. Jason hears him inhale deeply, and blinks at the sudden stiffening of the wolf’s shoulders.

“You shouldn’t go that way.”

“Too bad,” he snaps irritably, “it’s the way I’m going.”

“Jason—”

“I told you to move, wolf.” This time Jason is the one who moves forward, aiming to step by his stalker. He stiffens when a slender hand presses against his chest, stopping him in his tracks.

This close, he feels the threat radiating out of Dick’s every pore. He can even see the sharpness of his teeth when he curls his lips back over them. “It’s dangerous.”

“Danger’s part of my job description, if you hadn’t noticed. Take your hand off me.”

Dick’s teeth become more obvious. “You don’t know what you’re—”

“Big monster, very bad. Innocent lives at risk. I’m not an idiot, wolf. I know what I’m doing.” Jason counters sharply. “Not that I’d expect an animal like _you_ to understand.”

Dick’s tail goes still, but his ears twist backwards, radiating displeasure. “An animal like _me_ knows what you’re walking into better than you do. The reason for it doesn’t matter. I’m telling you, you shouldn’t go that way. You can’t face what’s down there.”

“And what, you can?” Jason hisses.

Dick’s silence is the first thing to give him pause. Jason narrows his eyes, tracking the stiffness of the wolf’s jaw and the tension in his limbs.

“... you can’t, can you?” He whispers, shock radiating from his words. “Don’t tell me… you’re afraid, aren’t you? Whatever’s down there, it’s got _you_ scared.”

“Jason—”

“What is it?” he can’t help the way his words turn eager, despite how he himself should take such a momentous occasion as a warning sign. “What’s the big bad wolf afraid of?”

“Turn back.” Dick insists, instead of answering. “Tell the villagers their packmates are dead and move on.”

“Why? Worried it might kill me before you do?” Jason says sarcastically. Then he shakes his head. “I can’t.”

The wolf looks startled for a moment, “I…” he clenches his teeth, “Yes, you can.”

“No. I can’t.” He clenches his jaw. “Whatever it is, it’s not going to stop just because it’s had its fill once already. If I don’t kill it now, it’ll go to the village again. It won’t stop until everyone there is dead. Then it’ll just move on to the next place and start the whole process over again. Am I right?”

The wolf looks sullenly at him. That alone tells Jason that he’s right.

“Yeah, that’s what I figured.” He slips his knife into its scabbard, then spreads his hands out to the side. “Take your chance, wolf. Either stop me now or get out of my way. Your choice.”

Dick’s jaw tightens. It’s hard for Jason to pin down the range of expressions that cross his face, sending his ears twitching and his tail quivering. Anger he perceives to be chief among them, and he wonders if this really is it. If he might have driven Dick to the point where he’s tired of this game, or if that anger is directed more at the idea of Jason ending it prematurely. Either way, he feels beads of sweat start to trickle down his back as he waits for an answer.

Eventually, he gets bored of waiting, and simply moves to walk past Dick again, snatching his mask back out of the wolf’s hand. To Jason’s great surprise, Dick lets him.

“Jason.”

“What?” he stops one more time, looking back over his shoulder.

“I can help you.” The wolf says to him, “You need me. This time you really do.”

Jason grimaces and turns away. He won’t fall for it. Whatever Dick’s been trying to do in getting him to accept his help this past year, Jason’s not buying it.

“I’ve told you last night, wolf,” he says, feet crunching through the undergrowth, “I don’t need your help. I can handle it fine on my own, so piss off and leave me alone.”

He gets roughly ten feet away before Dick speaks again.

“Jason, it’s a lindworm.”

The name sends a chill through him, but he doesn’t stop walking. After some careful listening, Jason determines that no footsteps follow him either.

*

 _A lindworm_ , Jason thinks, opening his mind back to everything his tutors, good and bad alike, had ever taught him.

Lindworms are winged serpents with two legs, big and powerful, though still far smaller than their more intelligent cousins, the dragons. Depending on species, they can have poisonous teeth, breathe fire or even ice. Dangerous doesn’t even begin to cover it.

Maybe he should have given in and accepted the wolf’s help after all.

But no, he couldn’t. Couldn’t open himself up to whatever consequences it would hold. The same as he can’t stop in his quest either, not after he promised Aida and the other women back in the village that he would find out what happened to their loved ones and do his best to bring them home. He’s just going to have to be extra careful about how he handles this now, that’s all.

Still, the strangeness of that last encounter with Dick stays with Jason as he continues on his path through the woods, following a steadily climbing slope until finally he leaves the treeline behind and finds himself entering a narrow and rocky ravine. The way the wolf had looked at him when Jason accused him of being worried that he wouldn’t get to kill Jason himself had been new, different; as had the note of desperation in his voice when he told him what the monster he’d be facing was.

Has something changed between them without Jason noticing? He’s never seen the wolf be anything but cocky and sure of himself before. But just now, he’d seemed uncertain, angry; borderline upset.

It’s a puzzle, but unfortunately not one Jason can spare the time to think about now as he picks his way through the ravine, moving as quietly as he can.

On the other side, emerging into a wide open pit before a cliff face, he finds what’s left of the men from the village.

Some of the bodies look torn up, as if from the work of teeth and claws. Other are crushed, dead from blunt force trauma where they’ve been smashed into the stone walls of the ravine or possibly squeezed to death by the lindworm’s muscled coils. Hardly any show any signs of being even partially eaten, which is a concern. Especially when he can’t see the remains of any children among them.

“Gods…” Jason whispers, grateful that his mask does something to filter out the stink in the air, though he still wants to retch from the sight alone. Like the boys and old men left at the village, they’d been armed only with farming tools and a few rusty swords that must have been handed down from ancestors who’d been in the military. Untrained and unprepared for what they were facing, they hadn’t stood a chance.

Past the bodies lies the dark opening of a cave, and Jason grips his dagger tightly in his hand as he observes it.

The eyes, that’s the weak spot. Every text he’s ever read on lindworms agrees on that. The eyes or the inside of the mouth if you were brave enough to go so far — which Jason isn’t inclined to without a further reaching weapon than his dagger.

Usually when men fight fight creatures like these, idiots like highborn knights on white chargers, they shout out a challenge to their foe. Jason, not being an idiot, aims to take it by surprise instead.

He puts his pack down near the entrance to the ravine, then chooses a number of rocks from the ground, stowing them in his pockets before clambering up the cliffside around the mouth of the cave. Only once he’s sure he’s high enough to be out of the creature’s immediate view does Jason pull out one of the rocks and throw it.

The impact of stone against stone makes a heavy clattering sound in front of the cave. A few seconds after the first has settled, Jason throws another, and another. When the third rock finishes bouncing, that’s when he hears the snarl.

From beneath his position, the lindworm emerges. Its scales are dark green and glistening in the late afternoon sun. Its eyes, filled with a kind of dumb animal intelligence, scour the area in front of its den, and Jason’s nerves raise a little higher when he sees a long serpentine tongue emerge from its mouth, smelling the air.

The scent of the dead should be enough to mask his own, especially perched where he is, but if it’s not…

He can’t afford to draw this out too long.

Jason waits until the beast is almost directly below him before leaping down onto its back with his dagger in hand. The effect is immediate, as the lindworm roars its displeasure and twists its long body in an attempt to throw him off. Jason hangs onto the spines at the base of its neck as he stabs at it with his dagger, hoping to see the magic imbued in the blade do at least _some_ damage.

It doesn’t. The dagger skitters off the scales as if from steel. Which is funny, because this blade can cut steel like butter usually. His second teacher, a sorceress called Talia, had assured Jason of that when she gifted the weapon to him, among other things.

He grimaces as the creature’s wings buffet him. Next time someone offers him a magical weapon, he’ll ask if it can’t cut a dragon’s scales as well. For now, it looks like going for the eyes is his only option.

Jason scrabbles higher up the lindworm’s neck, avoiding the snap of its teeth as it curves its head back at him. No smoke or cold breath emerges from its mouth, only rot, and he counts his lucky stars that he hasn’t run into one of the ones that can shoot projectiles.

He’s almost in range of the beast’s eyes when something heavy suddenly knocks him from its back.

 _Damn it,_ he was so focused on the teeth he forgot about the tail.

Jason rolls across the expanse of the pit in front of the cave, hitting stones and bodies alike. Nothing breaks or cracks in his landing, which is a miracle enough in itself. As soon as the world stops spinning, Jason forces himself up onto his feet again. Just in time too, as the lindworm comes charging at him, an eager screech emerging from its mouth.

He dodges, rolling to the side before throwing another rock. The stone bounces harmlessly off the side of its head, just above the lindworm’s eye where he was aiming it, and Jason curses again. This is not going as well as he hoped it would.

The beast charges. Casting his eyes about him, Jason spots the broken end of a pitchfork on the ground and seizes it. The longer reach will help him, just so long as he times it right.

Then, just before he’s ready to throw, the lindworm flaps its wings, giving itself an extra burst of speed that completely messes up his timing.

Jason has only a moment to realise what’s happening, and reflect on his own poor life choices, before it hits him, the tail whipping around again to knock him sideways into the wall of the pit. Jason chokes, sliding down onto the ground and dropping the pitchfork as the air is knocked out of him, blinding pain running down his ribs despite the leather armour he wears.

_Fuck._

He tries to crawl up again, but too slow. With one of its short, stubby legs the lindworm seizes him, throwing him again across the pit before hissing and flapping its wings in excitement. It hops towards where he’s fallen like an oversized chicken as Jason groans in pain. Fumbling for his belt, he seizes the red talisman that was Talia’s other gift to him before he left her care and holds it up in front of him, willing the power inside it to activate.

A blinding burst of red light fills the area, before solidifying into a shield. The lindworm screams at the sight of it; again when the first impact of its body does nothing to break the wall the talisman has created. Stubborn thing that it apparently is, though, it soon does it again, and again, and—

Jason bites his lip as he feels an echo of each impact of the monster’s body hitting the shield run up his arm. The talisman relies on him as a conduit to fuel its power, and it won’t last forever. He needs to figure a way out, which is easier said than done with potentially cracked ribs.

Pushing himself up into a sitting position, Jason groans and wraps his other arm around his chest. He needs another weapon, something with a longer reach than his dagger. The creature is far too flexible for him to be able to safely reach its eye otherwise.

Unless, of course, he _throws_ the dagger. But it’s not a weapon meant for throwing; the blade is completely the wrong shape. And considering how well using the rocks went...

Another jolt runs up his arm as Jason thinks about it, about the same time a small fissure appears in the shield. He’s never seen that happen before, and he has about five seconds to consider what it means before the lindworm launches itself bodily into the shield again and the fissure becomes a definite crack.

Fuck it, Jason thinks, he’s throwing the dagger.

It’s a decision he reaches just in time too, as the shield shatters and the talisman shudders and disintegrates in his hand. “Son of a—!”

The lindworm snakes its head towards him, causing him to drop the rest of that sentence. Drawing his arm back, Jason offers up a quick prayer to any gods that may be listening and throws his dagger, only to see it fall and skitter across the pit far from its intended target when the lindworm again uses its tail to defend itself.

He is so incredibly fucked.

The tail lashes out once more, this time catching Jason directly in the chest. He cries out as his body hits the side of the pit, head knocking back against stone to leave him stunned.

When he comes back to himself again, it’s to see the lindworm standing directly over him.

Jason’s heart pounds as he looks up at it, seeing his own death reflected back at him in its cold lizard eyes. The last time he’d been in a position like this, Dick was the one responsible, and unlike the wolf, he doubts the lindworm has the intelligence to want to keep him around to play with. It’s just going to kill him, maybe eat him, and all that will be left of Jason is his bones littering the floor of its lair. No one will ever know what happened to him in the end, and Aida, Percy and the other people of the village will never get their answers or their revenge for what happened to their fathers and husbands.

 _Damn it_ , he thinks desperately, gasping in pain as the lindworm uses its claws to drag him into the center of the pit. Its foot rakes across his face, and it’s only his mask that protects his flesh from being torn open. That won’t stop it for long, though. All Jason can think about is how he doesn’t want to die like this: alone because of his own foolish pride.

It might have cost him some of his soul, but if he’d said yes to the wolf’s offer, if he’d accepted Dick’s help, then he wouldn’t be—

A furious growl splits the air, louder than the lindworm’s excited screeches at the prospect of a kill, and something big, heavy, and exceptionally furry knocks it off of Jason.

He doesn’t see most of the fight, just hears the sounds of it. Rocks knocked aside, snarls and screams and screeches. Sometimes a yelp or pained whine fills the air, and Jason isn’t sure why, but each one makes his heart clench with worry.

Finally, he hears a tremendous _crack_ , and after that the area falls silent except for the rough pants of something big coming towards him.

Jason groans as he rolls over, looking up at a familiar dark shape filling the air above him. “Dick?” he gasps out, seconds before a cold wet nose nudges his head. Almost dreamily, he puts out a hand to touch the wolf’s muzzle. “You…”

Dick draws back, his jaws open, and Jason smells sour dog breath as they come down towards him. He only has a second to feel fear as sharp teeth close around his ribs, gently, but still hard enough to cause him pain as he’s lifted up from the floor.

*

Jason guesses he must pass out at some point after that, because the next thing he knows, he’s waking up. Darkness fills the forest, and though the air against his face feels cold, he himself is warm. Probably thanks to the large furry blanket he’s curled up in.

Then the blanket moves, inhaling and exhaling, and Jason has a sudden panicked moment of clarity. “Wolf?” he stammers out.

A low rumble confirms his suspicions. “Stay still,” Dick says, “You’ve hurt yourself.”

Jason’s head spins, but not so much that he can’t manage a sarcastic reply of, “Actually, I think you’ll find it’s the lindworm that hurt me.”

“After you tried to fight it alone.” The wolf reminds him, pointedly, unamused by the quip. “I warned you not to.”

“Yeah, I remember.” Jason swallows hard, “You came to save me?”

Turning, he can make out the silhouette of Dick’s black-furred ears against the shadows of the trees and the night sky, as well as the deep blue of his eyes. The wolf has his head cocked in confusion, “You sound surprised.”

“I am,” he admits, “A little. I told you I didn’t want your help.”

“Yes, but then I decided that I didn’t care what you wanted. It was going to kill you.” Dick replies sharply. “Would have, if I hadn’t intervened. Unless, of course, you were just waiting until it had you in its stomach to win the fight?”

Jason grimaces, “Not particularly.”

“Then what are you complaining about?”

“I’m not...” he forces himself to sit up, putting a cautionary hand against his ribs. On closer inspection, he thinks they might simply be bruised, rather than cracked or broken. “I’m not complaining. I just…” The question rises up, awkward in its context. “Am I really that valuable as prey to you?”

In the moonlight, Jason can make out dried blood on his muzzle and the scruff of Dick’s neck, signs that he didn’t come away clean from the fight either, and it must be a trick of the light, because he thinks sees a ripple of shock run down the wolf’s body at his words as well. “Prey?” he repeats.

“Yeah, prey. Remember? This game we’ve been playing the last two years?” He raises an eyebrow. “How after I failed to kill you, you said you’d marked me as yours. That some day, when the time came, you would—”

“Claim your life for my own.” Dick finishes for him, pointed ears twisting back down to lie flat against his head. “I remember.”

“Really,” he says dryly, to cover his own surprise, “Because it sounds to me like maybe you forgot for a second there.”

Dick growls lowly, but after living with the wolf on his heels for so long Jason’s too used to it now to be so easily intimidated. He shivers out of reflex and nothing more. “I didn’t, I never have.”

“Then why—”

“I haven’t followed you across the world for this long, abandoned my territory, just to see you killed by a mindless worm!” Dick snarls. “I claimed you first, it didn’t have the right.”

That at least sounds more like the wolf Jason knows.

“So you saved me because you’re enough of a possessive bastard that you’re willing to put your life on the line to keep me for yourself. Right, good to know.” He runs his hand through his hair, pushing it away from his forehead. Idly, he wonders where his mask has gone. He hopes the wolf hasn’t chewed it up again like he did the last one. “Which begs the question, when _are_ you finally going to get around to killing me?”

Dick’s ears twitch. “Are you that eager to die?”

“No, of course not.”

“You could have fooled me, with how willing you are to throw yourself at every creature out there that will kill you.”

Jason grits his teeth, “Well, you know, a man can get tired of waiting for anything, eventually. Even death.”

Dick looks away from him, tail lifting and thumping down hard against the ground.

“Well?” Jason demands.

He growls again. Jason thinks he hears several roosting birds go flying from their perch at the sound. “I’m not going to kill you, Jason.”

He must have hit his head harder than he thought when the lindworm threw him into the walls of the pit. “Excuse me?”

“I’m not going to kill you.”

Jason stares at him. “I don’t understand.”

“I was going to, originally. But then things changed.”

“Changed?” He asks, “Changed how?”

Dick thumps his tail against the ground a second time, then shakes his head. He looks agitated. Struggling, Jason thinks, to put whatever it is he means to say into words a human can understand. “Don’t you know? I _like_ you.”

“Like me.” Jason is dumbfounded. “What… what does that mean? Like me. What…”

“What do you think it means?” The wolf continues to look puzzled. “You’re still alive, aren’t you?”

“I don’t pretend to understand the way you think, Dick.” Jason says warily.

Dick sighs, scratching his paws against the ground. “I didn’t understand either, not at first. After you failed to kill me, I only thought it would be fun to draw the hunt out for a little while. A few months, nothing more. But then… then you didn’t do what I expected you to do when I told you I would kill you. You didn’t panic, or run like every other human I ever hunted did, trying to find somewhere to hide where I wouldn’t be able to reach you. You faced it; you continued to live your life, to do what you do. And I was… fascinated, watching you. Every time I tried to make the decision to end the hunt… I couldn’t. I wanted to see what it was you would do next.”

Jason doesn’t know what to say. “I…”

“You’re strong. Protective and caring, too. You don’t hesitate to help those who need it, even when it hurts you to do so. You treat the entire world like your territory, your pack; defending the weaker members.” He licks his jaws. “I have never known another human like you.”

An odd suspicion starts to tug at the back of Jason’s head. “Wait a minute...”

“That’s why I started to leave you gifts. To prove myself, show you that I’m a good provider.” Dick barrels on eagerly now that he’s made his initial confession. Ears turned forward and primed to hear Jason’s response. He lifts himself up, tail raised up in a hopeful gesture as his nose nears Jason’s head. “I offered to fight beside you, to hunt _with_ you, except—” his ears twist downwards, “—you always said no. I didn’t understand why when you kept eating the food, so I kept trying, waiting for the day you’d accept me as worthy. But then you went to fight the lindworm, and I couldn’t—”

“Holy shit,” Jason utters, “you have a _crush_ on me.”

Dick cocks his head as he sniffs at Jason’s hair. “Crush?”

Jason laughs a little, fighting through his sudden hysteria. He can’t believe he’s having to explain this to a wolf. He can’t believe a _wolf_ thinks this way about him. But the more he considers the idea the more it makes sense; the animals that were left for him starting a year ago, how Dick had started to spend more and more time with him in this form around about the same time; how he’d begun to touch Jason as well, stroking his hair, nipping and rubbing his head against him. It wasn’t because he was trying to freak Jason out, it was because— “Crush, it means… it means you find someone attractive. That you want to be with them. Like a—”

“Mate.” Dick finishes for him.

“Yeah.” Jason replies, mouth suddenly very dry.

Dick considers the explanation for a moment. “Yes,” he says finally, “That’s what I feel. What I want.”

He pushes forward, using his muzzle to knock Jason back down onto the ground. Jason’s too taken by surprise to stop him, even when the rough surface of Dick’s tongue laps over his face. He reaches up blindly, his hand landing on the wolf’s nose. His heart is pounding in his chest as he fumbles for some sense of reason in all this. “But I’m a human. Male. I’m not… I couldn’t…”

“I don’t care.” Dick says, pressing his head into Jason’s touch. Despite how long they’ve known each other, Jason’s never actually gotten to put a hand on him like this before, or dared to. It surprises him now to find how soft the wolf’s fur actually is. “I can change into whichever form you want me to be for mating. And pups…” his tail twitches, “We’ll find a way if we have to.”

Jason isn’t so sure about that last part. Or the first actually. He shivers as Dick nose travels lower down his body, sniffing at his chest, stomach. Between his— “Could you… could you maybe change form now?” he chokes, “I… I think I can talk about this more easily if you’re, y’know, the ‘other’ you.”

For a moment he thinks Dick isn’t going to do it, but then he huffs and backs away from Jason, stretching once with his forelegs out in front of him and his haunches up in the air. The sound of dry twigs popping in a fire fills the area, and Jason tries not to wince as he watches the admittedly uncomfortable sight of Dick changing forms right in front of him.

“Better?” he asks, once it’s done. Just like earlier, he’s chosen to keep his pointed ears and furred tail rather than make the full transition to appearing human.

Jason’s first impulse is to say yes, but looking at Dick in this moment, he’s reminded suddenly of the uncomfortable attraction he’s always carried for the wolf’s human form, as well as some of the dreams he’s had about it. Strange, rough dreams, filled with claws and teeth.

“I guess.” he forces himself to say.

The hunger in Dick’s expression is so obvious now that there’s no way Jason can miss it. “Good.” the wolf replies, before walking back and kneeling down over him.

“Wait,” he starts, hands jumping automatically to Dick’s hips. His ribs hurt with the weight suddenly put on them, but it’s a minor distraction compared to the wild beauty above him. “I didn’t mean—”

“You want me too, don’t you?” Dick asks him, “You never said yes to my offers to hunt with you, but I could always smell your desire.” He tilts his head with a sharp, predatory smile. “Your heart is beating fast, like a rabbit’s. It’s not the first time you’ve looked at me this way.”

“I’m not a rabbit.” He grumbles defiantly, struggling to find some believable way to deny it. Damn the wolf’s sense of smell.

“No,” Dick agrees more softly, running a fingertip down the length of his nose, “You’re Jason.”

It’s such an unexpectedly tender statement that almost all of Jason’s resistance melts in a second. His breath catches in his chest and his throat feels tight. “Wolf,” he croaks.

Dick smiles at him with too many teeth, “Yes?”

It’s a question in more ways than one. Jason shudders, “This is… a lot to wrap my head around. Attracted to you or not, I spent the last two years of my life thinking you were out to kill me.”

“But you know better now.” Dick says, as his finger reaches Jason’s lips.

Jason doesn’t know which he wants to do more, kiss or bite it. “You should have told me outright.”

“I thought you realised when you took my gifts.”

Jason laughs weakly, “Not… not exactly. I thought you were trying to scare me. Creep me out. Humans don’t do things like that, Dick.”

“They don’t give each other gifts? But I’ve seen—”

“They do,” Jason corrects himself hurriedly, “But usually there’s some talking involved. They don’t just drop dead animals on the doorstep of the person they’re trying to impress without explanation.”

Dick frowns, and Jason wonders what it must be like to live in a world of wolf’s logic. A world free from complicated human cultural roles and rules; a world where so many things were apparently understandable without words, but instead action and gesture. All this time they’ve been speaking different languages, and he doesn’t know whether he should feel sorry or angry with himself about that.

Probably a mixture of both, if he’s being honest.

“I’m sorry.”

“What?” he looks up as Dick’s finger drops away from his mouth.

“I’m sorry. You’re right. I should have realised that you didn’t understand.” Dick looks somewhere to the side of Jason’s head, ears and tail drooping like he’s frustrated at both himself and the situation. “When you kept turning me down, I thought it was because I still needed to prove myself to you. Not because you didn’t realise I wanted you.” He looks briefly horrified. “All those times I teased you, you thought I was being—”

“It’s all right,” He says awkwardly. Jason’s surprised to find he means the words as well. “Mostly I’m relieved. It’s good to know you don’t want to kill me anymore.”

After all, he did attack the wolf first. Did try to _kill_ Dick first, and would have without regret had he proved the stronger out of the two of them when they first met. He’s actually more surprised that Dick apparently found it in himself to forgive him enough to change his mind on taking his revenge than he is at the wolf finding him attractive. God knows if their positions were reversed he wouldn’t have. Jason is well aware of his own potential for vindictiveness and how it’s played out in the past.

“Not for a long time, Jason.” Dick says solemnly.

Jason breathes in deeply, then lets it go in a long, heavy sigh. That’s one problem solved. But the other… he swallows as Dick shifts above him again, as his nostrils flare and his ears perk back up. The predatory air returns to his eyes, in a far different form than Jason’s known from him before. “Dick…”

“You still smell like you want me.” Dick tells him.

Jason bites his lip. Hesitation is weakness, a betrayal of something deeper, and Dick picks up on that just as clearly as he does his lust. He kisses him, and it’s a terrible kiss, really. Just a mouth clumsily pushed against his own in imitation of the real thing. But even so, it still manages to set conflicting sparks raging off through Jason’s brain, and further down as well. His fingers tighten on Dick’s hips, squeezing as their mouths mash together, and sharp teeth catch at his lip, causing him to yelp.

“Shit,” he gasps, when Dick pulls away, looking pleased with himself. “You don’t know how to kiss at all.”

The smugness doesn’t disappear from Dick’s face as his tail wags from side to side. Undeterred, all he says in response is, “So teach me.”

Jason licks his lips. It’s a trap, he knows it is, just as surely as if he was standing on the edge of a precipice with Dick poised behind him as the wind ready to knock him off, yet still he falls for it anyway. “Well first of all, you can’t just smash your mouth into the other person’s and hope for the best. It’s not like that, there’s a skill to it. You have to…”

“Have to?” Dick asks, with real interest.

“Here,” Jason sighs finally, at a loss on how to explain it and wondering at the madness that is his life, “Just let me show you.”

He lifts his hands from Dick’s hips, setting them instead to the sides of his face. There’s a rough graze on Dick’s cheek from where the lindworm got him, and Jason runs the pad of his thumb over the scab, watching with strange delight as the wolf shivers. He leans up at the same time as he draws Dick’s face downwards, then gently touches their lips together.

It’s sweet, and far more tender than the first kiss Dick gave him. Jason takes his time about it, letting himself enjoy the softness of Dick’s mouth as he shows him how to kiss properly, and Dick learns quickly, responding to the movements of his mouth first with enthusiasm, then quickly growing finesse. Somehow by the end, Jason is _still_ the one out of breath, despite having been the initiator.

“See?” he croaks.

Dick licks his lips. “That was good,” he agrees, “I still like it better my way though.”

He punctuates that last part with a nip to Jason’s jaw, and all Jason can think is that he’s not wrong; there is some definite appeal to that method.

Drawn by curiosity, he reaches up further with his right hand, pushing his fingers through Dick’s hair up to one of his pointed ears. The fur there is silky soft, and when he scratches it Dick makes a surprised sound of pleasure, instantly tilting his head into the motion as his tail wags harder. “This isn’t me saying yes.” Jason tells him, to be clear.

“No?” Dick asks him, a little breathless, “Then what is it?”

That’s a good question, and Jason swallows as he finds his answer.

“It’s me saying I’m interested, but also that I need time. Time to know that this, this is real. That it’s not just that I find you attractive,” and here his face reddens, “Because I do. You’re beautiful, particularly like this.”

Dick’s tail slows, “But?”

“But that’s not all a relationship is. What you’re asking from me, it would be permanent, wouldn’t it?”

“Wolves mate for life.” Dick confirms.

“Then I need to be sure. I need to know it’s what I want. That I like you in more ways than physical attraction. I think I do, but I also spent the last two years expecting that you would kill me in the end, not mate with me,” Jason swallows. That word sounds so _filthy_ in his mouth. Animalistic. It brings to mind the image of his hands in the dirt, Dick behind him. Of being taken, hard and rough. It’s difficult to maintain his resolve in the face of that, but he endeavours. “That’s not an easy thing to forget, even if you did save my life today.”

Dick looks disappointed, and Jason knows that what he’ll do next is the test. If Dick will give him what he’s asking for, or push for more, regardless of what he wants.

The entire time he waits for the wolf to make his mind up, Jason doesn’t breathe. He almost thinks he has his own answer to whether he wants this or not in how badly he finds himself hoping that Dick will respect his choice.

“We’re already connected, Jason,” the wolf finally says, fingers reaching to brush back the white streak in his hair. “I claimed your life as mine long ago, even if I changed my mind later on what that means. I don’t understand your reasons for holding back entirely, but I’ve waited this long for you to accept me. I can wait a little longer.”

Jason breathes out a deep sigh of relief at the answer, “Thank you.”

“Whatever you need me to do, I’ll do it.” Dick promises him. “I’ll hunt for you, kill for you. Protect you against any threat. I’ll find the best territory, the warmest den. Or if you want to keep travelling, I’ll do that too. I’ll follow you wherever it is you want to go. I only ask one thing in return.”

“What’s that?” Jason asks, curiosity piqued as much as he’s touched by the unorthodox but heartfelt words.

“Let me keep kissing you while you decide.” Dick smiles at him.

The request takes him off guard. Jason laughs, flustered and awkward. “I think… I think I can handle that. If I am going to be with you, you certainly need to improve your technique.”

“Good,” Never one to miss an opportunity, Dick leans down to steal another kiss from him now. It’s somewhere between the rough bite he started with and the more gentle method Jason showed him. With time, it certainly could refine itself into something he could grow addicted to.

“Good,” Jason echoes him when he can breathe again.

He isn’t surprised when Dick doesn’t get off of him. Not with the way he’s always acted before. Instead, he lies down on top of Jason, making himself comfortable. Apparently for the night.

Jason supposes he can live with that as well.

With gentle fingers, he continues to pet the wolf’s ears and hair, marvelling at their softness. He could so easily fall asleep like this, except that there is one more thing that’s bothering him.

“Wolf,” he asks, “At the lindworm’s cave, did you smell anyone else there that might be alive?”

“No, Jason. I would have brought them to you if I had.”

Jason swallows thickly. In the morning, he’ll return to the village and give the women and children the bad news. Maybe they’ll have harsh words for him after, maybe they won’t, but either way he’ll be moving on. He can’t stand being an intruder on other people’s grief, no matter what part he played in causing it.

“So,” he forces himself to say, to put that inevitable moment off a little and focus on the present, “Hunting together. Is that the usual way your people ask each other out?”

“It’s one of the ways we test that we’re compatible with each other, yes. A true pair can always move in sync. That’s why agreeing to a hunt is usually the first step towards mating, after giving gifts.” Dick confirms. Jason can feel him perk up again at the question, “Why, do you want to? Will you hunt with me?”

Jason turns his head, pressing his nose against Dick’s hair. He smells faintly of dog, but in a strange way that’s warm and familiar after two years of knowing each other. All this time, he was right that Dick’s offers to help were a way for the wolf to gain a greater hold over him; it just wasn’t in the way he thought it was.

With that knowledge in mind, there’s only one answer he can give this time around.

“Sure,” Jason agrees, “Let’s hunt.”

**Author's Note:**

> [My tumblr.](http://firefrightfic.tumblr.com/)
> 
> [Kiwiliko's tumblr.](http://kiwiliko.tumblr.com/)


End file.
